


Just an Illusion

by TheFearlessGenius (Time_Elleth_ontheEnterprise)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, jeyna
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-04
Updated: 2014-12-04
Packaged: 2018-02-28 02:01:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2714855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Time_Elleth_ontheEnterprise/pseuds/TheFearlessGenius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where Jason returns on the Argo II to Camp Jupiter with no memory what-so-ever of Reyna, what does it take for him to remember?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just an Illusion

**Remember Me:**  I’ll write a drabble about my character trying to get yours to remember them

* * *

 

Percy had warned her about how complicated memories could be, but even the knowledge of that cannot prepare her for the pang in her heart as he looks at her with curious yet  _blank_  blue eyes, and an outstretched hand. “I’m Jason.” He has that same familiar smile that crinkles the corners of his mouth and makes that white scar disappear.

_I know_.

It would be so much kinder to just turn away now, but she has a duty to do. And she will always adhere to it no matter the toll on her. “I am Praetor Reyna.” She replies tightly, willing herself to firmly shake his hand and stare determinedly into those bright blue eyes without flinching, without letting her sadness and disappointment slip through the cracks of her mask. She can feel Percy’s sympathetic hot gaze on her back, and the feeling makes her stand a bit taller, chin set in stubborn strength. She  _needs_  no sympathy.

Her sister would certainly dock her around the head for the amount of time she spends thinking about the blond –and she is minorly upset with herself as well, though what’s the saying?  _The heart wants what it wants_.

And now she sounds like a child of Venus.

So she shuns such thoughts to the back of her mind and works on welcoming the Greeks to her camp, and avoiding Jason as much as humanly possible, which in reality isn’t an awful lot as he has obviously stepped into the role of leader for the Greeks alongside Annabeth.

But she can’t stop the constricting in her chest when she sees him laugh along with his new friends, or when he tugs Piper by the hand behind some building just like they used to sneak around New Rome after curfew as Centurions to get a peek at the stars. And it’s not like she’s  _jealous_ , it’s the simple fact that he doesn’t  _remember_.

She catches him sometimes, staring at her with curiosity, but there’s no spark of recognition there. He doesn’t remember her or anything even remotely connected to her. Birthday parties, Praetor celebrations, how they danced at the Feast of Fortuna, or hot chocolate in New Rome. They’re unnerving blank slates, and Reyna resigns herself to the fact that Jason really  _did_  die eight months ago when she knocked on his door to find him gone.

_Duty before everything, right?_

And it works somewhat. Isn’t that what she’s always done? Avoid the past until it catches right up with her, and like everything else,  _he_  catches up to her, bumping into her at some party lit only pale golden fairy lights strung up around the perimeter to cast faint light over the crowd, hand curling briefly around her upper arm with a light shock. She turns to the familiar sound of his apology and quick withdrawal of his hand. “Hey, we haven’t had a chance to talk much.”

No, not they haven’t had much time to talk. She’s made sure of that, because she can only take so much of staring into those blank,  _blank_  eyes that hold no spark of recognition for her. She can’t help but cast her gaze briefly about to where Percy is dancing with Annabeth –though perhaps dancing is a bit of a stretch to say. She’s no child of love, but even she can tell how much they care about each other. She can also see how Percy wasn’t robbed of his memories of Annabeth. Maybe she just wasn’t important enough.

Her silence is her answer.

“It’s just I have this feeling of déjà vu. And Percy…” There’s more but she’s already lapsing off, gaze falling to the movement of his hands before she sends off a glare towards the sea demigod at the mention of his name. If she lets her eyes unfocus the crowd into a blur, it’s an achingly familiar scene, an echo of a different party, in a different time.  _Before_  things were so complicated. “Reyna?”

“Yes?” She snaps back to reality, head turning back. “Sorry.”

“Do you want to dance?”

“ _What?_ ”

No. No she can’t dance, because it’ll break her perfect world where Jason Grace doesn’t exist to her anymore. Dark eyes turn out over the crowd once more, and she swallows back the nostalgia that assaults her chest. Because it is almost too perfectly a match to the party so long ago. Too perfect to be a coincidence.

“I mean-“

“No it’s alright.” She cuts across his sentence, an idea half forming in her head. A stupid foolish idea that is utterly selfish. “Just promise not to step on my toes.”  _Or I’ll cut your fingers off_. It takes effort to bite back the second part of her sentence –an echo of a conversation they had so  _so_  long ago.

“Or what, you’ll cut my fingers off?” He jokes with a wide smile, and her heart nearly stops.

_So perhaps not all things are lost._

“Something like that.” And a small smile drifts across her face before she can help it. She pretends not to notice the way his shoulders seem to relax the tiniest bit, nor the way his mouth curves up again in that  _familiar_  smile. _He doesn’t know you. You’re grasping at straws._

But this once, Reyna would grasp for those straws as if they’ll stop her from drowning in a sea of disappointment. She grabs his hand instead, and leads him through the crowd, purple cloak flowing lightly behind her. And maybe it’s coincidence, or maybe it’s some other force at play –whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing will have to reveal itself late-- All she knows is that  _their_  song drifts lightly across the crowd, a mix of solemn yet sweet music that assaults her ears with bittersweet notes.

The Fates truly are cruel to her. She swallows back the knot of emotion in her throat, and drops Jason’s hand like it burns her. It’s dignity that makes her turn to face the taller blond and wind her arms around his neck. “You better keep that promise, Grace.” She mutters as she steps back and him forward.

Heart stopping grin meets her words.

She can’t force herself to look away from those blue eyes –ones she’s stared into for years,  _memorized_ , and yet, now they are foreign, lacking that spark of recognition.

_Do you remember?_

Hands brush involuntarily at the base of his neck, in a reflection of their first shared dance.

“ _We’re praetors, Reyna, everyone’s expecting a dance.” He pokes at her ribs as she sips at her mug of hot chocolate. And she can’t refuse. They stand and she makes a quip about her toes and he laughs. Soft music dictates their moves, fluid, smooth like water as if they’ve always fit perfectly together._

Just as they’re dancing now, as if no time has passed at all.

Eyes drift closed, everything just touch and go, music and emotion. If she opens them then the fragile illusion carefully crafted up in this moment. She just needs this one moment. Just this once.

_Do you remember?_

She thinks it’s all in her head. The soft utterance meant to be confined to the confused tangle of her brain, not uttered out into soft fairy-light lit air. Muscles tense under her fingers and she reluctantly opens her eyes, lips tugging down into a frown as she prepares for the shattering of this final moment. Only black meets blue, and they’re no longer foreign to her. They’re the blue summer sky she’s painstakingly memorized.

She breathes in.

And he breathes out.

“I promised I would never forget you, Reyna.”

**Author's Note:**

> So this was a response on my Reyna blog to the meme "Remember Me: I’ll write a drabble about my character trying to get yours to remember them." To be honest I'm not completely great with Jason's dialogue, so I tried here. Comments and criticism much appreciated!


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